The Flame Game Comments by Ellie Gibson

""having two level 60 WOW characters to his name"

only 2? Lightweight :P"

Agreed. I know of at least 4 people in the guild I'm in who have 4 level 60 characters, and one has 6. :O

Madness.

I got a closed beta of WoW to review a few billion years ago. I started a paladin and had a blast. Then, two weeks before retail launch, they completely changed the way paladins worked (going from being active battle participants with spells and skills and stuff to passive onwatchers that can heal once every three seconds or something). So when I got my account for the retail (free.. woo me..) I played it for three months, pulled my paladin up to level 60 and then left the game with three months still remaining on my account. I don't know if it was the change to paladins, the fact that I now had to deal with thousands of twelve year old kids or the end game that was boring, but I just couldn't see myself playing it any longer.

Speaking of which, anyone interested in buying a slightly used level 60 paladin with no gear or gold whatsoever to his person? :P

"I am glad I have never played those sort of games in my life.

Seriously, those who play WoW for hours every day need to get out more."

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That's a bit unfair: as the article (rightly) points out, these games can be very social. I played WoW for several months with my friends, but also made some new ones from further afield. A couple of them I still talk to, despite the fact I no longer play. Inasmuch as gaming can be "ranked" by "not needing to get out more-osity", WoW, when played with others and in something approaching moderation can be a healthy hobby.

"As for the no life thing, most of my WoW mates are married with both partners playing the game - I know, go figure!"

I guess polygamy would make for a pretty lethal grinding/levelling machine :P

It's not dissing for the sake of dissing, it's just pointing out that not all gamers are alike. Certain gamers like to spend hours per evening bashing troll after orc after rat AND give Vivendi 9 pounds a month for the 'privilege' AND not get out/wash enough (sorry about the cliché but just look at those pictures!) and others enjoy susprising, innovative and varied console gaming... and the rest of their lives too.

But I think Ellie said all this better than any of us in her highly amusing piece:

"...John, a 29 year-old mechanic from Slough... said he finds the game relieves stress at the end of a hard day - "I like it because you can completely forget about work." So when he's not beating panels, he likes to relax by punching rats? "Yeah."

But for other WOW players, such as 26 year-old Dave from Rochester, the social aspect is not the main attraction...

"I'm looking forward to The Burning Crusade because there are more instances to do, there are more things to kill, and we need more new things to do." Like kill new things, presumably."

"susprising, innovative and varied console gaming..."

I almost giggled.

People who do activity X for hours indoors need to get out more. Where X is painting miniatures, reading books, watching television, dusting and washing the floors etc...

"I guess polygamy would make for a pretty lethal grinding/levelling machine :P"

You'd imagine that to be the case but the reality for me and my missus was that playing together caused too many arguments!! In the end we ended up just playing on the same server (and side) and doing our own things until she had trouble and I came swooping in as her knight in +1 Shining Armor.